Candy Pinwheel Quilt

April 6, 2012

My daughter trying her hardest to hold up the quilt

As promised, today I’m sharing the finished Candy Pinwheel quilt, made from my Candy Pinwheel block of the Festival of Half Square Triangles. (To see more on the block and quilt assembly, check out my Candy Pinwheel tutorial.) A few of you asked how I was planning on starting and ending my rows. As you can see, I decided to use a solid turquoise fabric. I really love this color, it’s probably one of my current favorites – FreeSpirit Designer Solid in Light Jade.

For the corners, I left off one half square triangle to give this angled look. I thought that was pretty cool…my daughter (the recipient of the quilt) almost starting crying because “my quilt is missing the corners!” Well, I still like it.

As I mentioned on Wednesday, I decided to make the Candy Pinwheel blocks either all warm or all cool colors. Mostly…there are always exceptions to the rule and I do have a few that used a warm/cool combination.

I quilted this with straight lines, 1/4″ down each side of the diagonal seams. I was actually a bit nervous to quilt this, because my daughter wanted minky on the back. I followed many people’s advice to just use a lot of pins and my walking foot (which I already use anyway) and really, the quilting proved to be a non-event. No issues whatsoever. And the end result gives a nice, poofy look to the quilted squares.

The quilt measures 39-1/2″ x 47″. It is bright, happy, super cuddly, and already much loved. And on a very random side note, does anyone know what kind of daffodils these beautiful flowers are? 🙂

What a gorgeous quilt! Last year the sewing club that I am part of completed a couple of quilts with a minky backing. I love it because it is so, so soft. Our teacher had us use basting spray to sandwich our quilts and just a few pins. Thi sseemed to wrok very well and saved the arduous task of putting in all of those safety pins (the bit of the task that turns me off quilting the most). I hope your daughter enjoys snuggling up under her cornerless quilt!

That’s too funny about your daughter so serious about the missing corners. Kids are like that. Your quilt turned out so well! I’m trying to get a visual here – how big are your squares (two half squares)? I made a pinwheel quilt awhile back but I think my squares were smaller.

What a great springy quilt! Just lovely. I love that your daughter worried about not having corners on her quilt, that would definitely be my daughters’ concern, too. I think it makes it that much more special and unique, wonderful idea.

1. I love the angled corners — too funny that your daughter felt you were giving her a defective quilt! 🙂

2. So curious about your Minky experience. Did you use a batting as well, or just quilt top and Minky? I’m asking because when I used Minky for a quilt backing, I thought I’d be so slick and do my machine quilting on my quilt top and cotton batting, THEN layer with the minky, and tacked through all three layers to prevent shifting. Unfortunately, the quilt top continued to shrink in subsequent washings and the minky did not, so I got horrible sagging. It must have been the batting that shrunk because I prewashed all of my cotton quilt top fabrics. I like the added snuggle factor and body of batting, so I’m thinking of using a thin poly batt next time that won’t shrink.

awww the little one wants everything “normal”! Her 1st lesson in getting out of the box…
Love the quilt and I have been hooked on the block now that I found some nice fabric for it! I will bring it to my UFO Society tomorrow to work on.
Love love love your blog…

I just put a reply to Rebecca up above on the batting question. As far as the wear and tear of the minky, I’ve used it on a lot of smaller blankets for my son with no issues. And his stuff gets washed a LOT (potty training :)).

Wow, what a great quilt! All the colors you used are beautiful together. I think this candy pinwheel block might be just what I’m looking for to use on a quilt I’ve been thinking up colors for. I want to use something that looks kind of like windmills but is still abstract 🙂 Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful setting for photos, and I think the quilt turned out great. I know you are from Chicago. Where is the pic taken? My coworker is from there and goes back home on a regular basis to see mom and family.

Hi Rita! The photos were taken in the Morton Arboretum. It’s about 5 minutes from my house and SO beautiful! If your coworker has children, they have an amazing Children’s Garden (play area). http://www.mortonarb.org/

I love this quilt, it’s really lovely and I love how the prints are from various designs. I bought some Riley Blake flannel to back my son’s quilt and have been having second thoughts, especially when I hear about pilling. Should I be using minky instead?

Hi Faith, I don’t remember how I got to your Flickr but I was curious about the backing on your quilt. I have a friend who used to put fleece on her quilts, but have never seen Minkie… it looks so nice!

And I see someone has answered your question about the daffodils. I don’t know how much it matters, but they are technically double blossom narcissus–their flowers are more delicate and fragrant than other kinds of daffodils. 🙂 Did you get to smell them? I find them intoxicating!

Faith, the pictures are lovely but they don’t compare to the real thing. Thank you for bringing your beautiful quilts, including this one, to share with the String-A-Long Quilt Guild in Chesterton, Indiana. (I was the one who asked for your autograph.) Your presentation was educational.

I am pretty much self-taught and my quilts are neither traditional nor really “artsy”. In fact, they arose from a practical need to produce affordable gifts after a long period of unemployment. Turns out I love the process.

I was inspired! Here’s my Candy Pinwheel quilt top. I made all the pinwheels first, then I did the inbetween rows. There were one or two seams that had to be ripped, rotated and redone, but all in all, I’m thrilled with how it turned out. I’m going to add a white border and a scrappy binding. My plan is to quilt it and then add an oilcloth backing to make it into an outdoor rug.

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